Pages

Sunday, 30 June 2013

This is puzzling me. I thought it was just faded as it had died in the box but on closer examination it has a dusting of fine black scales with a hint of some brown cross lines. All the common waves I have caught show the brown cross lines clearly even though they are pale brown. This doesn't seem to have lost scales. Is there a clue in the one sided antennae?

Saturday, 29 June 2013

Not a scarce moth or as stunning as Blomer's but handsome nevertheless and a welcome sight in my garden. Not a garden species but my garden hardly qualifies as a garden because there are large areas of wild grasses. These were found in a small patch which contains lots of the foodplant pignut,so this female was even more welcome. It has hosted a nesting chiffchaff and great news, is sprouting yellow rattle so well on its way to being a flower meadow!
Tregaron could do with some chimneys being swept,the air pollution is appalling on cold, still, winter days.

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

A breeze made photographing this lot a challenge but we couldn't resist the fabulous fresh livery of the zygaenidae. Yellow shell is such a stunner but this one was not cooperative and the minor is looking faded and dull so early in their season yet was very actively nectaring the buttercups as though it was intending to live forever! Interesting to see it in the daylight.
I did a bit of fly-trapping last night under some very old oaks up at Strata Florida: 6C cool,dank conditions so very few but 5 very fresh nut-tree tussocks were amongst the catch. Not really worth the walk in late yesterday and 4.30am recall this morning!

We had a walk around the boardwalk on Cors Fochno yesterday afternoon in some welcome sunshine. There were good numbers of Large Heath butterflies very active over the heather. On the moth front we found Crambus Pascuella, Catoptria Margaritella, several Common Heath, and this Beautiful Yellow Underwing. Apologies for the poor quality photos but they were taken through a plastic box.

Monday, 24 June 2013

I am hoping to get a count of the glow-worms along the Cors Caron railway line this year. There are at least 2 areas with some numbers of them present in previous years so I will check tonight if they are on schedule or late like most things this year. If present tonight they will need to be counted over the next 2/3 weeks I think.
If you would like to help out please let me know on 01974 299166
If you have any local to you I would also like to know so they can be put on the national database.

Sunday, 23 June 2013

We would like some help to identify these two micros. The larger one is a Crambid but which one. It has a wing length of 10mm. We think it may be Eudonia truncicolella but the shape looks too narrow.
The smaller one has a wing length of 3mm and looks like an Elachistid. I apologise for the quality of the photo but I had to be quick for fear of losing it.

Thursday night was warm and misty which must have been what the moths were waiting for because the garden skinner produced 74 moths of 37 species. Nothing unusual but it was great to see a good number of our more common moths. We had the two extremes of Dark arches, the very dark one looks like the aethiops form.

Friday, 21 June 2013

I know I shouldn't have left a red card beneath it , wing length (10mm).
I thought it a pale foxglove pug but it has quite a plain underwing and its only the camera that has picked up any warm tone in the crosslines otherwise to the naked eye it is very grey. The markings are clear so I should have it sorted but I haven't because it looks so carpet like...well it does now it has expired in the pot. Caught on 18th/19thJune in oak woodland.

Peter M. has certainly made a good record with this moth. I have attached a map showing its distribution for VC46. According to our County Recorder there have been 13 archival records from 1923 to 2000 and only one recent record in 2010 on the coastal path at Clarach. As this is a day flying moth perhaps we have become too dependent on our light traps rather than walking the countryside looking for these elusive day fliers. As Tony also mentioned in his comment they live in flower rich grassland, the larvae feeding on Mouse- ear seed capsules.

Don't forget to look back at comments for previous entries to follow any discussion!

A walk around the boardwalk afterwards produced several Common heaths, a couple of Marbled white spots, a Garden tiger larva at the top of some Bog-myrtle which is not one of its normal food plants, and a Beautiful yellow underwing.

We found this attractive Yellow-tail caterpillar in a prominent position on sallow in a hedge near Mynachty'r Graig at the start of our coastal walk yesterday. They overwinter as a small larva but apparently at this time of year sit openly by day and are often conspicuous on hedges.
Carolyn & Evan.

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

On 27 May 1982 I noticed vast numbers of Elachista argentella, a pure white micromoth, on
the roadside bank outside the next door garden to my house in Penyrangor, Aberystwyth,
SN581808. The identification was confirmed by G. S. Robinson. I estimated 200-400 on each
1 square metre of the bank, which was 18m long and 1.5m high, making a total of c.8,000
moths. They remained in similar abundance for at least 5 days in hot dry weather. By 20
June only c.8 were left.

The moth is widespread and common in Britain, and the larvae mine the leaves of various
grasses, especially Red Fescue which is abundant on the bank. I have kept an eye on the
population ever since, but have never seen a specimen anywhere else along the banks by
this road, where the vegetation is very similar, except on this one stretch. The population
has persisted now for over 30 years, but never again in such abundance. Recently I have
noted the dates of first emergence:
2006: 5 May
2007: 17 April
2008: 1 May
2009: 24 April
2010: 1 May
2011: 15 April
2012: 28 April
2013: 17 May

Not unexpectedly, this year has been by far the latest, and while the maximum numbers
have recently been in the low hundreds, this year the most seen at one time has been only
five.

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Grey scalloped bar turned up as last year which is reassuring! Out on the bog it was cool and breezy so not a lot but 3 of the above plus 14 True Lover's Knots. I seem to remember that this moth has alternate years of plenty. The lovely little micro is I think Eulia ministrana?
Pic in the middle is the mystery. Something of the pale mottled willow about it? Same size as the smaller one illustrated by Lewington. A faded tlk? but all the others were fresh and its not the end of their season. It was a bit browner than in my pic taken in low light.
My highlight was a Light Knot Grass, new to me.

We thought initially this could be a Waved Carpet but later convinced ourselves that there was a rather faint pair of blackish spikes projecting ouwtards from the centre of the crossline near the middle of the forewing making it a Welsh Wave. Do people agree?

And this rather fine noctuid has completely eluded us. Can anyone help please?

At last the garden catches are looking reasonable again. There were 16 species last night, most numerous again were the Buff-tips (8). Firsts for this year were a Large yellow underwing, Small angle shades, May highflyer (a bit late and very worn), Green silver-lines, Oak hook-tip, and Foxglove pug. Most puzzling is this one shown below; shape and size and the conspicuous black collar make me think it is a Heart and dart, but the markings are unusual. Can anyone help with id please?

Monday, 17 June 2013

For those new to this website please note that you can access the comments by clicking on 'comments'.
Included in the discussion below the last post, my spiky green 'caterpillar', is the link to the ukleps.org which is fantastic to use and very comprehensive. Tony, could you add it to the links section on the right?
Re Denmark Farm trapping: as you know it was a cold and windy night last Thurs and just to help even more it soaked down on Friday morning! Nevertheless Tillo and I set traps and hung a sheet (well it got a wash anyway)and showed some potted live moths from my garden catch the previous night to a new moth-er. Next morning 4 people turned up in spite of the rain and I was able to show them the meagre offering of 17 species from 4 traps which nevertheless elicited some excitement and wonder so it was a worthwhile exercise after all.
Denmark Farm will be trapped again on a better evening!

Sunday, 16 June 2013

A small caterpillar daring to live under a blue tit nestbox in an oakwood near Tregaron today. I only have Manley so would be grateful if someone with Porter could have a look. Caterpillars with this type of bristle seem to be butterflies. I should have used flash as it was so dark in the wood but was struggling to hang on to the tree as the nestbox was placed awkwardly (by me of course) and operate the camera. For my pains I managed to get peppered by box fleas and am now in quarantine.

I have a Purple-leaved Filbert bush in my garden which is very attractive to female Buff-tips when laying their eggs. As a result it gets defoliated every year. I trapped 19 moths in the garden last night, and 10 of them were buff-tips, no surprise there. I got them to pose for this group photo!

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

There will be a short talk by Ian Tillotson at 8:30pm to start the Denmark Farm moth event tomorrow evening and we hope it will be dark enough to see some moths come to light; if not there will be some potted samples to study including a fresh Elephant HM as in the previous pic. Trap opening will be 10am on Friday morning, all welcome.
Details of the event plus access info in the events section to the right.

I still have a couple of micros to id. Not too bad overall I thought. Sorry I didn't make contact with some of you, but I have learnt that trapping there has to be a last minute decision and I run traps for around 3 hours only from dusk onwards. Peter, as per usual I will send you a full listing once the micros are id'd later in the year. The final night was spent in Carmarthen where I was even more successful, including a Sand Dart, a first for me.Peter Hall

On a coastal walk from Borth to Clarach and return in hot sunshine today we found this Oak Eggar caterpillar, an unfortunate rather damaged Brimstone Moth and saw lots of very active Speckled Yellow day-flying moths which proved rather more difficult to photograph.